I am absolutely appalled at the current tuition issue. Last week, I read in The Daily Tar Heel that a primary reason for such an increase was to raise professor salaries so that they may be "competitive." I found this to be reasonable until in the next few lines I was informed that last year the professors at UNC made only $117,000. Only! You've got to be kidding me.
How can anyone in good conscience give them a pay increase when they are already making an obscene amount of money for what they do? Perhaps if these professors had real-world salaries and jobs they might realize how unbelievably fortunate they are to make such a large income.
The administration claims that they need more money to stay competitive. Tell that to the people who really work hard and need money. Tell that to the police, the firemen, the postal workers, nurses, sanitation workers, security guards and our own city bus drivers. These people generally make just one-third of what a professor is paid. And to think, their jobs are far more important and dangerous. Take my own mother for example: She's worked as a nurse for 17 years saving lives and still only makes about 40,000 per year!
During the blizzard of 2000 she worked in a hospital for two days straight, and what did these professors do? Oh yeah, they didn't have to work because there was no class.
You try to tell her that we might have to take out another student loan just to cover yet another absurd tuition hike. This is just one of a multitude of examples of how these professor do not work in the real world. Speaking of doing work, how much work to these people actually do anyway?
The students on their own do most learning in college, and when that's not happening, a professor has at least two teaching assistants helping them out! These professors should consider themselves extremely lucky. I cannot imagine a single person in the real world who would in any way pity their situation. On that note, I challenge anyone to give me one irrefutable reason as to why these professors should make as much as they do, let alone get a raise.
Disclaimer: I apologize if these comments are in any way offensive to anyone.
Travis Senor
